More than 1,100 U.S. personnel were killed in the bloody, 76-hour Battle of Tarawa and its aftermath. Due to extreme environmental conditions in the equatorial Pacific, remains were hastily buried in trenches and individual graves on and around sandy, one-square-kilometer on Betio.<br /><br />KSSL shipyard, Cemetery 27 area is one of those lost grave sites. A nongovernmental organization (NGO), History Flight, Inc., notified DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) that they discovered a burial site on Betio Island, Tarawa and recovered the remains of what they believed were 35 U.S. Marines who fought during the battle in November 1943. These remains were turned over to DPAA in July 2016. <br /><br />Nine more Marines were recovered from under this building including individual #43 later positively identified by DPAA as 2nd Lt George S. Bussa.

More than 1,100 U.S. personnel were killed in the bloody, 76-hour Battle of Tarawa and its aftermath. Due to extreme environmental conditions in the equatorial Pacific, remains were hastily buried in trenches and individual graves on and around sandy, one-square-kilometer on Betio.

KSSL shipyard, Cemetery 27 area is one of those lost grave sites. A nongovernmental organization (NGO), History Flight, Inc., notified DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) that they discovered a burial site on Betio Island, Tarawa and recovered the remains of what they believed were 35 U.S. Marines who fought during the battle in November 1943. These remains were turned over to DPAA in July 2016.

Nine more Marines were recovered from under this building including individual #43 later positively identified by DPAA as 2nd Lt George S. Bussa.